ASK TONY: My four-year battle with M&S over the faulty TV they sold me

I purchased a small television for my kitchen from my favourite store, M&S, in 2008. But for four years I have had nothing but trouble with it.
I have contacted the helpline dozens of times but been fobbed off.
I’ve been told that the problems were due to the digital changeover, but the other two televisions in my house work perfectly.

In exasperation, I took the set back to the Watford store where I bought it, only to be told they couldn’t do anything without an authorisation number.
It is still under its five-year guarantee and I’m not even asking for a refund.
I just want a replacement television that I can watch! Can you help?J.D., Aylesbury, Bucks.

Wow — you really have been given the runaround. And have been given some absolutely ludicrous explanations for your television failing to work properly.
On one occasion, you were told the signal from the Crystal Palace transmitter was ‘drifting’ and spent almost 38 minutes on the phone while someone talked you through retuning it.

Troubled TV: M&S admitted the customer service the customer received was not up to its usual standards

Then, you were told there was trouble at the Sandy Heath transmitter in Bedfordshire.
Next you were told the tuning chip should be checked.
You’ve collected a plethora of staff names including Warren, Jessica, Vicky, Dale, David, Dean, Aaron, Jordan, Paul, Natalie, Joshua and Pat.

Marks & Spencer’s spokesman was, not surprisingly, himself upset at how you had been treated.
M&S admits the customer service you received was not up to its usual standards.

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The television should have been replaced much sooner and M&S has taken this up with Castelan, the service company that deals with these issues, to make sure this never happens to a customer again.
Unfortunately, M&S no longer sells technology products so can’t offer you a replacement television.

However, it has given you a full refund and an additional £50 gift card.
A customer service adviser has also called you and, I hope, managed to restore your faith in your favourite store.

Insurer Prudential wrote to tell me I was entitled to a small annual pension of £86.88 from April 11 this year.
The pension dates back to my time with a company called International Combustion.
I was born on April 11, 1937, and am now 75.
I have asked Prudential why it didn’t contact me when I was 65; we have lived at the same address since 1984.
It said it got my address from the Department For Work & Pensions.
Also, why will Prudential not give me a lump sum instead of this small annual payment?
J.D., Calpe, Spain.

Prudential has actually made a number of attempts to track you down over the past ten years.
It made its initial efforts in 2002, then tried again in 2007 and 2009, before finally finding you this year.
I can’t really get to the bottom of why it could not find you in 2002.
I suspect the reason is that co-operation between the DWP and the pensions industry has improved.

Your pension actually built up through you being contracted out of the state’s old graduated pension scheme.
This was the forerunner to the state earnings-related pension scheme, which has since mutated into the state second pension.
Instead of you building up a graduated pension, you had your National Insurance diverted to this private pension.
These are different to ordinary personal pensions and the money built up is known as ‘protected rights’.

Unfortunately, Government rules prevent lump sum payments being made to anyone aged 75 or over. Your pension would originally have been £37 per year if Prudential had managed to contact you ten years ago. But it has now been enhanced to the current £86.88 level to take account of your age. As you have no doubt worked out for yourself, you will gain from this arrangement so long as you live comfortably into your 80s.

However, I agree the whole thing seems very silly when dealing with such a trivial sum.

I am in tears as I write this letter because I do not know how I’m going to meet my energy bill.
Npower has sent me a bill for £575.41 for the second three-month period of this year.
I live in a one-bedroom flat on my own with basic amenities, so consume very little gas and electricity.
This bill is double the size of the one for the first three months, yet logically the bill should get smaller in better weather. Now I’m being threatened with debt collectors. I had the same problem last year, when it turned out that I was using more energy than I was being charged for.
S.J., Bilston.

You do seem to have a bit of a history with npower. It seems that you pay when you receive a quarterly bill. One of these went astray, which meant you didn’t actually pay your spring bill.
Hence when the one for the second quarter arrived it was actually covering six months.

By the time you wrote to me and I contacted npower, it had already reduced your debt from £388 to £300 as a goodwill gesture. But the real problem is that, like many people, you are on an expensive tariff because you choose to pay once a quarter.

At my behest, npower is contacting you again to try to persuade you to move to a cheaper tariff to reduce your costs.

STRAIGHT TO THE POINT

As a non-taxpayer, do I have to fill in form R85 on every bank and building society account I open to ensure I have my interest added before tax is deducted?
R.C., Manchester.

Unfortunately, yes. You have to fill in a separate form for each bank and building society with which you open an account.
If you open another account with the same bank or building society, you must fill in another form. You need to fill one in for each taxable account you open for children, too.

We have prudently saved £250,000 towards buying a new home. We’ve split the money between different organisations to ensure we are covered by the £85,000 maximum compensation limit per person per bank or building society. Are we covered when we move it all into our current account before transferring it to our solicitor to buy our house?P.C., by email

Sadly not. The level of cover on large sums that are only sitting in an account on their way elsewhere is £85,000. If it’s a joint account, you’ll be covered for £170,000 between you.

I have discovered a huge pile of Dutch guilder, German marks and Cypriot pounds left over from holidays that took place before the euro was introduced.
Is there any way I can change this money back?
R.C., London

The central banks of these countries will allow you to change this money into euros, which you can then change into pounds. However, you will probably have to go to the country to do this.
Alternatively, there are some currency traders who will do this task for you — for a fee.
London-based Thomas Exchange Ltd will let you change many pre-euro currencies, with the exception of French francs, Greek drachma, Finnish markka and Italian lira. You can send your currency by recorded delivery.

My husband died last year. He had a current account with Citibank with around £35 left in it at the time of his death. I sent Citibank my husband’s death certificate and have repeatedly asked them to close the account but they have failed to do so.
I keep receiving statements with my husband’s name on them, which I am finding upsetting.L.D., Surrey.

Citibank says it asked you for a grant of probate to prove you were allowed to deal with your husband’s affairs, but did not receive it from you. However, it says it has now closed the account as a gesture of goodwill.

I have received a letter from Friends Life saying my with-profits policy is being moved into another part of the business. Should I worry?
C.D., West Sussex.

Have no fear, this will not affect you or your savings in any way.

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ASK TONY: My four-year battle with M&S over the faulty TV they sold me